MONTREAL - After contemporary dancer Jordan Clark won the fourth and final season of CTV’s So You Think You Can Dance Canada in 2011, she stepped away from the limelight for a spell to re-energize.

“I didn’t move for a month,” Clark said. “After such a huge high, you come down and you don’t know what to do.”

She took acting lessons. She took singing lessons. She continued to dance with Vlad’s Dance Company in Richmond, Ont. She was a guest teacher in Canada, the United States and Europe. She bought a guitar.

Now the lithe dancer with the mass of flaming red curls returns to the small screen as Giselle in The Next Step, a series for young audiences that debuts Friday, March 8 on the Family Channel.

The show focuses on a group of competitive dancers from the Next Step Dance Studio. Students at the school are divided into troupes. To be accepted into A-Troupe means you have talent and will be going to the biggest and best dance competitions.

Then there are the E-Girls, an offshoot of A-Troupe. They are the studio’s clique extraordinaire.

The clique can get nasty, and when a new girl joins the troupe, the established hierarchy is threatened. Drama ensues.

“I think the show will appeal to a lot of kids,” Clark said. “And the fact that the guys in it are really cool will make it interesting for both girls and boys.”

Clark went through an arduous audition process for the show, culminating in her execution of a sequence by Amy Wright. The veteran film and television choreographer chose the dancers for The Next Step and is the show’s resident choreographer.

There is plenty of dance in the show, but the dancers are also expected to have acting chops. Making it even more challenging is the fact that much of the dialogue is improvised. Cast members are given a story outline to follow, but the rest is up to them.

“I learned so much from the process,” Clark said. “I’m realizing that acting is what I really want to do. I’m so hungry for it.”

Clark talked to The Gazette from Florida, where she is filming East Side Story, a dance movie directed by David Winters and expected for release at the end of the year. Winters danced in the original West Side Story and choreographed for Elvis Presley.

Clark plays Shotsy, who is embroiled in a love triangle with characters portrayed by So You Think You Can Dance U.S. contestants Chehon Wespi-Tschopp (winner, Season 9) and Witney Carson (Top 6, Season 9). So You Think You Can Dance Canada’s Matt Marr (Top 3, Season 4) is also cast as a male lead.

The director found the lead dancers on YouTube.

“(Winters) called me and said he’d seen me dance on YouTube and wanted me to be in his movie,” Clark said. “He sent me a script and I immediately hired a couple of acting coaches. It’s been intense. I’ve been here (in Florida) since January, but I will be back in Canada in time for The Next Step launch.”

The Next Step premières Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. on the Family Channel. For more information, visit www.family.ca/thenextstep.

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